Unmei no Namida
by Enchanted Kagome
Summary: [one-shot]The ultimate moment of revelations comes. InuYasha's final choice between Kikyou and Kagome. The miko or the reincarnation? One he had loved, the other is his salvation...


_**Unmei no Namida** _

_(Tears of Fate)_

by: Enchanted Kagome

(If you've read my other works, there's a very important note at the end of this, please read.)

* * *

Kagome climbed through the well, dragging her backpack out slowly. She didn't want to return to the village sooner than necessary. This was the last time. She had no hopes for anything more than what was agreed. Sango did not understand all that was at stake here. Sango's words about InuYasha's 'love' for her, though comforting, held no meaning. Her eyes swept around the familiar foliage. He wasn't here. InuYasha wasn't here. 

But she shouldn't be thinking of this now. The jewel was complete and InuYasha…had duties elsewhere. He had other promises to fulfill; his promise to Kikyou…his promise to die with her. Somewhere else, in the rebellious area of her mind, a small voice reminded her of the promise he had made to protect her always. She shook her head slowly, cutting off the thought.

"That was a later promise. It meant nothing. His promise to Kikyou was made 50 years ago, before I was even born," Kagome whispered softly to herself, trying to quell the pain rising inside her.

As she trudged along the trail leading towards the village, she felt the air cool around her and saw streaks of white that she immediately recognized to be Kikyou's soul-stealers. _Kikyou_. Then InuYasha must be here also. Kagome hastened her journey, trying to escape witnessing another rendezvous between the lovers. However, she had not walked far before Kikyou made her presence known, stopping Kagome in her tracks.

"Is the jewel complete?" Kikyou asked, her voice soft but threatening in its own way nonetheless.

"We have all the shards," Kagome replied turning around, her eyes fixed on the ground.

"And what of InuYasha?" came a second inquiry. Kagome mustered up all her courage and gazed up at Kikyou. Meeting her eye, Kagome nearly flinched. Inside those pools of gray existed no warmth, no life. No love. Just a cold mask that hid all from the world.

"I don't know…" Kagome dropped her eyes, afraid to look at Kikyou…afraid to confront the truth.

"Does he forget his promise?" Kikyou persisted, still as indifferent as ever.

"I…You should be asking him," Kagome finally answered after an awkward silence.

"You have spent all this time journeying with him; I thought you would know," Kikyou replied.

"He probably does remember," Kagome admitted slowly.

"And will he honor what he remembers?" Kikyou asked. Kagome started and couldn't help but gaze up at Kikyou again from the chilling tone of her voice.

"Why do you still want him to _die_?" she asked softly, her eyes betraying a tumult of emotions. "Didn't you love him?"

Kikyou gazed silently at the girl from the future—the mirror image of herself, reincarnation so like yet so unlike. Her eyes showed nothing. Turning around slowly, she betrayed no change of heart.

"Be sure to tell InuYasha that I await the day we embrace death together," were the last words she said before disappearing—her last stab at Kagome's already bleeding heart.

"InuYasha!" He kept his eyes shut firmly, ignoring the persistent voice. It was that annoying houshi again. Always minding other people's business.

"InuYasha!" _There he goes again_, InuYasha thought. Hearing Miroku voice his name was the most annoying thing in the world right now.

"What will happen between you and Lady Kagome?" Scratch that. Hearing Miroku at all was the most annoying thing in the world. "You cannot avoid that question forever, you know."

InuYasha banged his fist on the tree trunk and opened his eyes. Glaring at the monk, he jumped off from the branches of the sakura tree.

"What question? There is no question," he replied brusquely, trying to mentally smash the little voice telling him Miroku was anything but wrong and that he himself was nothing more than a liar.

"Between you and Kagome. What will happen?" Miroku asked again. This time, his voice was softer.

"There is nothing between us, houshi," InuYasha replied shortly. There is nothing. Nothing. He repeated the thought over and over in his mind. Kagome is…Kagome. The jewel is complete. _She'll go back to her world and take all the stupid goddamned tests that she wants now_, he told himself.

"Do not deny it, InuYasha. You love Kagome," Miroku said doggedly.

"So?" InuYasha asked nonchalantly.

"So, what will you say to her?" Miroku asked, subtly trying to find out InuYasha's decision.

"Everything has already been said, monk."

"And what will that be?"

InuYasha turned away and started walking off.

For a moment, Miroku thought that he had gone too far and perhaps he had miscalculated his friend's nature and was not going to get anything out of the stubborn hanyou.

However, his worries proved to be unnecessary. InuYasha stopped abruptly and said, without turning around, "I promised Kikyou that I would die with her. That promise…was sealed 50 years ago."

He knew he was right. He had promised Kikyou and everything was set in place 50 years ago with her death. There was nothing that he could offer Kagome. Nothing. Yet, he couldn't help but think back to their journey, the long path they had walked down. The many times that she had nearly died for him. Something echoed in his head.

"_I can never rival Kikyou because she's dead…"_

Kagome had said those words. And ironically, that's how things ended up being.

Kagome slowly advanced towards the wooden hut, still shaken after her meeting with Kikyou. Before she had fully lifted the bamboo screen, Shippo had already jumped onto her, asking for chocolate.

"Of course, Shippo," Kagome said, smiling a bit. Dropping her sack, Kagome began to dig deep down for the chocolate and other treats she had brought the kitsune, consisting mostly of his favorites. _After all, this is the last time_, Kagome thought silently to herself. The smile no longer graced her face. Unable to resist, she looked over at InuYasha. The hanyou was leaned against the wall, his eyes unfocused, as if deep in thought or reminiscence. Glancing away before her eyes betrayed her emotions, Kagome sat down with Shippo who was gazing curiously at the book she had brought him.

"Kagome, what does that say?" Shippo asked, his voice betraying his childish innocence and curiosity.

"It's a fairytale called 'Sleeping Beauty.' It's about how a prince rescued a sleeping princess from a curse set on her 100 years ago," Kagome replied.

InuYasha stood up wordlessly and walked outside. He was in no mood to listen to a fairytale right now. Life was life and fairytales would remain no more than pretty pictures in a book. Jumping into the tree, his mind again wandered onto the forbidden topic.

"_I realized Kikyou and I are alike in the fact that we both want to be with you…"  
_

She had stayed with him despite his choice. She had stayed with him despite what he was. A hanyou. A hanyou that could offer her nothing.

"_InuYasha!" Kagome jumped in front of him just in time to block Kaguya's mystic arrow. "I'm…glad you're OK…" _

She had saved him from Kaguya's arrow…by putting her own life in danger. It was she who, again, had saved him from Kaguya's enchantment…she who had helped him found his own humanity.

"What is it, little brother? There's plenty more where she came from…" "I'm just glad is all…It's the first time you've opened up to me like that…" 

Sesshoumaru was wrong. There were no others like her, no "more where she came from." She was different. For a long time, he had felt…lost. Lost about his place, lost about the meaning of his life. No one accepted him. Humans condemned him and demons scorned him.

"_I was neither. Not really human…not really demon. That's all. There was no place for me, so I just made one for myself…until I realized that I was the only one in it…"_

That's how it was. He fought, he destroyed…he made himself powerful so that he would have what it took to make a place for himself. And that led him to the Shikon no tama; the jewel that had caused all this. This journey. These friends.

"_InuYasha, do you still want to become full-demon? Might you then, not recognize Lady Kagome and Shippo?"_

It was ironic how the cause for which this all started seemed so small and insignificant now. The jewel couldn't have been farther from his mind. More ironic was the fact that this was the same question that dictated his fate 50 years ago…the same that dictates his fate now.

"_InuYasha, you can use the jewel to become human and I will be no more than a mere mortal woman."_

Those had been Kikyou's words. They had planned to live together happily, as man and wife. He would, for the first time, fit in with a group of people and she, be a normal person. Yet, it had gone so wrong. Naraku had ruined their plan, pitted them against each other, and left them to wander in the darkness for 50 years…until Kagome had came and freed him.

_"InuYasha, I just want to stay by your side…"_

What Kagome had given was unconditional. But that was who she was, a loving person whose care and trust were both given unconditionally—so different from Kikyou, from the world he grew up in. In this world, there were only two kinds of people—those who would not trust and those who knew not how to trust. Kagome had been one of a kind. She trusted and trusted easily in all. In himself despite his previous attempts to murder her, in Miroku despite his lecherous acts, in Shippo despite his thievery, in Sango and Kohaku despite the threat they presented. She was different from the other selfish beings that existed in his world. She cared and she gave all that was within her power. And for that, she deserved someone better—someone who was not going to Hell, pining over his old love.

The wind picked up suddenly and a fog descended upon the land. Within the slowly growing mists, InuYasha picked up the eerie glows of soul-snatchers.

"Kikyou…" he whispered to himself softly. "Unwilling to wait even a while longer?" Jumping down softly, InuYasha walked back to the hut, preparing to say goodbye to Kagome. She would tell the rest, he was sure. He hadn't seen Miroku ever since their little "conversation" in the woods. Nor had he seen Sango. Lifting the bamboo screen, he walked inside slowly, trying to buy time for his mind to sort out the jumble of thoughts and think up a good way to say farewell.

"'The 7th fairy shook her head. "I cannot, Your Majesty, for what the old fairy said is already written down in the Book of Fates. I can only add more by writing, but never change what has been written." Thus the fairy stepped up to the baby princess and waved her wand, whispering soft words of enchantment,'" Kagome's voice trailed off softly, drowned out by Shippo's snore.

InuYasha looked on from the doorway. He knew Kikyou would want his answer soon, but he just wanted to preserve this picture, this peace…if only for just a while longer.

_This is what sets her apart_, he thought. _This is her gift, the gift the Heavens sent to me…to us all. This gift of love…_

"InuYasha?" The soft inquiry jerked the hanyou out of his thoughts. Gazing around, he saw Kagome looking at him expectantly. "What is it?"

Afraid to meet her eye, InuYasha turned around and was halfway out of the hut before answering, "Kikyou's here."

"Oh." It was the only reply he got. Curious to find out what Kagome's reactions were, he turned around, only to come face to face with said person herself.

"What are you doing?"

"Aren't we going to meet Kikyou?" The 'we' startled InuYasha. He had never thought Kagome would go with him when the end came.

"Kagome…I'm going to keep the promise I made to Kikyou. I'm going to…"

"I know," she replied, cutting him off. "But you also promised me that I can always remain by your side. I just want to be with you until the end." Silently, the hanyou nodded and headed out into the woods.

"So, InuYasha, you finally came," Kikyou said quietly, her words almost lost in the silence surrounding them.

"I made a promise, Kikyou," InuYasha replied firmly.

His ears suddenly perked up, catching the sound of footsteps. Familiar footsteps.

"Kikyou! InuYasha's not dying with you!" came Sango's piercing voice. In a few moments, she appeared in the clearing opposite them, alongside Miroku.

Ignoring the newcomers, Kikyou continued gazing intently at InuYasha, "And do you mean to keep that promise?"

"If you will not listen to us, then will you heed your sister, Kikyou?" Miroku asked, leading out Kaede.

"Onee-sama, can you not let go of your hatred and allow InuYasha to live? It was not he who took your life," Kaede called out pleadingly to her older sister.

"InuYasha, do you mean to keep that promise?" Kikyou asked more persistently. Gliding slowly, she closed the gap between them and took one of InuYasha's hands in her own. She gave a dry smile as he flinched at the coldness. "Disgusted and terrified by what you find, InuYasha?"

She looked down at their clasped hands. Yet, no one could decipher any hints of emotion within her gray cloudy eyes. But that's who she was. A miko, a guardian of the Shikon no tama, shows no weaknesses, no emotions. That's who she was trained to be…to be without feeling, to live only for the purpose of guarding the jewel.

She ran her fingers slowly up and down InuYasha's palm. She felt nothing. It had been a while, 50 years, since she'd felt anything. No longer did she feel the warmth she knew emanated from the one she loved, no longer can she feel the wind against her face, her only brush with freedom. What was she now? No more than a bag of clay, mud and bones. Her very existence sustained only by the hatred that she could not relinquish. And herself, no freer from the curse of the jewel than 50 years ago.

But the last time they had held hands, they had not held in hatred. They had held in love…in hope. It was a symbol of their pledge of love to one another, a harbinger of their future days together as man and wife, as two regular mortals whose love would be tales told for millenniums past, whose love would transcend the bonds of death and culture and thwart the very will of Fate itself. That had been their plan, their ultimate wish. But it's been long since she had learned not to try and thwart Fate—that Fate was not so easily undone.

"It is only to be expected, InuYasha," Kikyou started again, her voice as devoid of emotion as before, her eyes just as blank. "After all, I am no more than bones and graveyard soil. But it was to this structure made of mud and bones that you promised to die with…that you promised to protect for all of eternity."

"I do not forget my promise," InuYasha replied quietly.

"I trusted that you would not."

Something tugged at his mind. "Kikyou, I want you to answer me something, before all is settled," InuYasha blurted out. "Why did you believe Naraku's scheme? Why did you trust me so little that you believed I would kill you?"

"Why?" she asked quietly. "Why did _you_ believe in his scheme? Why did _you_ believe I would betray you?"

"I know why I did, why I was ensnared, but I want to know why you did. I want to know why you believed so little in our love…in me," InuYasha said.

"InuYasha, look at me," Kikyou said forcefully. "Tell me what you see."

"You. Kikyou."

"And _what_ was I? _What_ was _Kikyou_?"

"A miko. The Guardian of the Shikon no tama," InuYasha replied, confused. She should've known he knew this. Did she mean to test him? Of course he knew who she was; it was that that had brought them together.

"Exactly. A miko. The Guardian. This is who I am. I was taught to be without emotions, to be pure and unselfish. To be untainted in all ways but to never forget that I live only to protect this jewel. I was never taught to trust. You know better than anyone else that trust is a luxury I couldn't afford. One moment's weakness and the world will rest on the brink of destruction," she replied coolly. "Perhaps I shouldn't have loved then. Perhaps I should've left the jewel untouched by any emotion. Yes, I made a mistake in distrusting you even though I dared love. But for that mistake I have died, InuYasha. What more do you want from me?"

InuYasha remained speechless for a moment. "Kikyou, I…"

"For daring to love, for daring to believe, I was condemned to 50 years of wandering in Hell, searching for the soul of the one for whom I died. I paid for my mistakes with my life. What more can you ask of me?"

"I don't…"

"Was it also a mistake to die because of my love for you?" Kikyou asked persistently. Yet, her voice held no true passion. Or rather, her passion was suppressed from old instinct and intuition.

"But we've both changed Kikyou, we are no longer who we were," InuYasha replied.

"You mean to say that your heart no longer lies in the same place," Kikyou said with a cold smirk. "Of course, I can hardly blame you. Who would not trade a dead bag of bones and mud for a warm and living girl? Who would not trade a soulless husk for another full of life and laughter?"

"I don't mean that, Kikyou. This has nothing to do with Kagome."

"Dare you say, InuYasha, that when you look at her, you don't see me? Dare you say that you have been able to look at her without at least being _reminded_ of me? Dare you say that she was not once a mere reincarnation, replacement, to you?" Kikyou said. All this, that out of others would've been filled with rage and anger, she said quietly and calmly. Her coldness and indifference was her only anger, her deadliest weapon.

"I do not deny any of those, but it has been a long time since I saw Kagome as you," InuYasha said. "The only way for me not to be reminded of you ever is for me to forget you totally. Is that what you want, Kikyou?"

"But sister, you said yourself that Kagome succeeded in doing what you would've done had you lived," Kaede put, walking towards the other miko with the help of Miroku and Sango. "You said that Kagome has melted InuYasha's heart as you would've if Naraku had not existed. Are you not pleased to know that the one you loved is able to find new joy in this world?"

"Yes, Kaede. I did. But it was _my_ role that she took, _my_ soul that she holds, even now," Kikyou replied, giving recognition to the trio for the first time. Then, turning to Kagome she asked, "Do you remember what I said to you?"

"_The only wish of the death is to be able to walk again among the living…"_

"You took my soul and deprived me of my chance at true resurrection. I settled for a second choice, to bring with me into Death the one thing I cared for most in life…the one reason that I wish for life, when 50 years ago I myself chose death," Kikyou said. "Do you mean to deprive me of that wish also? Do you ask that I seek a third path to satisfy the hatred that allows me to move still?"

"I do not mean to do anything, to take anything that is not my share. I did not know you. I do not know of your sufferings in Hell as InuYasha does so well. But I have my own regrets. You regret the things you could not do in Death and I regret the things I live to feel. I do not pretend to say that my situation is worse than yours, but you have never felt second best. You have never been seen as a mere replacement for another. You curse Death and yet it gifts you with a power Life can never gift me with," Kagome replied wistfully.

"_I can never compare to Kikyo u because she is dead…"_

"No matter what opportunities and chances you lost, wandering in Hell, you dieing for InuYasha gives you an eternal and unbreakable hold over him. Even now, I can never be sure that he sees me and not you. But that's what love is. It's given unconditionally. I would rather stay with him and see him love you than be apart and thus spare myself the witnessing," Kagome confessed in a small voice so that only Kikyou could hear.

Slowly, she pulled out the necklace with the Shikon jewel and the last single shard left. She breathed in deeply and stared at the jewel. This was what had started this whole adventure. This is what led her to InuYasha, the very object of her suffering right now. This thing, so pure and beautiful now, was so tainted in its history. A jewel of immense power—gifting the owner with life, death, and more power…this is what Kikyou spent her life, guarding, what Midoriko gave her life, creating.

A gift to men they called it, for it can deal out not only death, but life as well. Guarding a jewel of such great importance is an honor many would die for, yet, for Kikyou, and for her, as she begins to realize, it is a curse that even death cannot do apart. For this jewel, Midoriko died, trapped. And within this jewel, she remains trapped, fighting a battle that never seems to end. For this jewel, Naraku brought upon the death of Kikyou and InuYasha. For this jewel, Kikyou was never given a fair chance to love. And it is stories and loose ends this jewel created that _she_ must tie up. A future girl, of an era so different from this one, must suffer for her love and actions due to the haunting consequences of the jewel's past.

She quietly looked up at Kikyou, whose gaze now rests on the jewel also. Slowly, Kagome extended her hand towards Kikyou, offering her the jewel. "It was yours."

"It was no one's," Kikyou replied. For a second, a look of pain seemed to cross her features. "Besides, you are now its guardian."

"Would it not answer your wish? Can you not be revived with it?" Kagome asked.

"To be alive as myself is to have my soul back. It is something the jewel will not grant me and something I would not ask of it," Kikyou replied, gazing coldly at Kagome, as if challenging the younger girl to defy her judgment.

"Then what is it good for? What are power, wealth, and the ability to destroy this world without life, love, and liberty?" Kagome asked quietly as she walked past Kikyou to give the jewel to InuYasha.

"It is good for exactly what you say. Only purified will it be of any use…the only way for Midoriko to win the last and final battle," Kikyou replied. "It matters little to us perhaps, but we do not know of all its history."

"I think I've know enough of its history, don't you? Knowing so little already affects me so much," Kagome said, dangling the jewel on a string in front of InuYasha's chest, waiting for him to take it.

"It should be yours, Kagome," InuYasha replied, not meeting her eyes.

"Mine? What would I do with it? Wasn't this what you've always wanted? Wasn't this what sealed you and Kikyou's fate 50 years ago? Wasn't this the reason you nearly killed me when we met?" Kagome asked, all her hidden emotions boiling to the surface—a mixture of pain, confusion and desperation coming out as anger. Then, calming down slightly, she added, "Wasn't this the reason for our entire journey?"

InuYasha met her eye for the first time since their meeting with Kikyou, driven by her angry words. He had heard what she said, and what she implied. She had implied that this was all about the jewel. It was for the jewel that everything had happened and for the jewel that he had gone through the journey and stayed. Not for her. That was what she was accusing him of. Yet, the jewel couldn't be farther from his mind, as it had been the day Kikyou had died and he had been pinned to the Goshinboku. He did not care about the jewel. He had only wanted to wish on it so that he and Kikyou's dreams would finally be allowed to become reality. Stealing the jewel had been the only way for him to quell his own pain, with revenge. He had not cared for the jewel then, and neither did he care for it now. It had held no more than pain for him. It had done nothing more than shattering his heart. He still remembered the arrow Kikyou shot, not through his chest, but through his heart.

"Do whatever you want with it, Kagome. After all, I'm going to Hell," InuYasha said, pushing past Kagome to get into the center of the clearing. He knew that he was hurting Kagome by what he hadsaid, but he couldn't help it. He was selfish. He was suffering and making the rest of them suffer helped numb the pain a little.

Kikyou nodded in approval and moved forward to grasp InuYasha. Just as she was about to start the process, Kaede cried out, "Sister, can you not leave InuYasha among the living? Can you not help stop the chain of death and pain the jewel has created?"

"And why must I be the one, Kaede? Why must I give everything for the jewel? What do I care for the jewel? It has brought nothing more than pain and death. What makes you think that I can stop it?" Kikyou retorted. "I have but one wish, and that is to go back to 50 years ago, to have things work out the way they should've if none of this had happened. Can the jewel grant me that?"

…_to have things work out the way they should've if none of this had happened…_

InuYasha opened his eyes slightly, jerked back to consciousness by what Kikyou had said. Something about what she said triggered his memory.

…_for what the old fairy said is already written down in the Book of Fates. I can only add more by writing, but never change what has been written…_

"Kikyou," he said softly, standing upright again. "Neither the jewel nor anyone can grant that wish. What has happened can never be erased. You and I…can never go back to 50 years ago and forget all that has happened." Suddenly, things seemed clear to InuYasha—clearer than ever before. "We were given a chance, but we didn't use it correctly. We did not trust each other enough. Our love was weak enough to be used against ourselves by Naraku. And you are not the one who changed me to who I am today…"

"But I should've been," Kikyou retorted, her eyes piercing those of InuYasha.

"You should've been, but you were not. Fate did not will it so. We sought to end the jewel's existence and threat, and thus gain happiness ourselves. It wasn't unselfish, yet we tried to outsmart Fate and the jewel. We were punished for it. Yes, Kagome has your soul, and took your job of helping me find myself. But the truth lies in the fact that _you_ did not. That's life. It doesn't deal with what should've been, but what is. I should've been accepted and happy and so should you have been, but we were not and that was what sealed our fate—what happened, not what should've happened," InuYasha said. "We can either continue this tragedy and hope for a happy ending, or we can leave it as it is."

Kikyou gave a dry laugh. "So that's you choice, InuYasha? Whatever you say, you mean only not to go with me to Hell. Tell me, was it my fault that I died to keep you company?"

"No. Nor was it mine."

"You seem to think that you are without responsibility, that all the blame lies on either me or Naraku, even the jewel. Let me disillusion you, InuYasha. If you truly want to believe in only what is and not what should be, then you can rest assured that even if you live, I will still haunt your dreams at night and your sight in the day," Kikyou said. "You can try, but you've already proven that you cannot forget me. Breaking your promise is the curse you set upon yourself."

"Kikyou, I will still go with you to Hell if you wish," InuYasha replied.

"Do not sound as if you are obliging me. You are not," Kikyou said, before turning around and leaving. Sango, Miroku, and Kaede flinched at the reply, the latter wondering whether how her sister ever became this hateful creature. Kaede wondered if Kikyou would ever be able to let go of her hatred—her pain. _But, then again, some pains cannot be forgotten_, Kaede mused.

InuYasha was still confused by his sudden revelations, but Kagome looked out at the dark expanse into which Kikyou had walked. Everything Kikyou said struck her in a torrent and without really knowing what it is that she planned to do, Kagome ran out after the former miko.

"Kikyou?" Kagome called out into the darkness, not knowing how the miko had disappeared so fast. "Kikyou? I have a question."

"What is it that you want with me?" came the distant and apathetic voice of the dead miko.

"Is there any way for you to return to Hell without InuYasha?" Kagome asked, blushing at how she had phrased the question, but not knowing any other way to ask it.

"To die, you mean?" Kagome whirled around to see Kikyou's figure behind her.

"No…not exactly. But to…rest as you did 50 years ago," Kagome answered, fidgeting under Kikyou's hard stare. "To rest peacefully in Hell."

"Rest 'peacefully'? I have never rested 'peacefully' and nothing will change. Nothing that you, or anyone else, would possibly give," Kikyou replied after a long silence.

"But something I _can_ give?" Kagome asked hopefully.

"Then let me ask you, will you give your life? Give up your very soul and existence?" Kikyou said. The silence that resulted was deafening. Kikyou looked at her reincarnation, wondering if perhaps there was really a chance of her saying yes. Kagome stared at Kikyou, letting her implied request sink in.

"How would it help?"

"I live on only because of the hatred that engulfed me at my death. I can neither move from the spot nor undo those emotions, despite them being built on wrong information, for I am dead and the dead cannot live again, nor feel again. With the soul returned, I can be alive once more and move from the spot I died," Kikyou explained quietly. "But it is nothing that I would ask of you." For that moment, Kagome truly appreciated how InuYasha had fallen in love with this woman so easily. Despite the pains of the past and her own cursed death, she retains still her dignity, pride, and consideration.

"And what if I said I would give it?" Kagome asked. Kikyou's eyes widened in surprise—her first real show of emotion.

"You may not survive."

"But this is what I owe you, myself, and InuYasha," Kagome said quietly, unaware of her voicing her thoughts out loud.

"Very well."

All InuYasha heard from far off was Kagome's scream and fear within her scent. He hastened his speed and got there in time to see Kikyou absorbing all of Kagome's soul.

"Kikyou! I'll go with you to Hell! What are you doing?" To that, he got no reply. Instead, Kikyou merely glanced at him. She extended one hand to touch his cheek. InuYasha jerked in surprise to find it, instead of being icy cold as he had expected, warm and…somewhat comforting. Gazing into her eyes, he saw the same woman he fell in love with 50 years ago—the same love, the same kindness, the same warmth. "Ki…Kikyou…" She gave him a sad smile, the first he'd seen in half a century, and glided away. Kneeling down besides Kagome's inanimate body, she touched the young girl's hand that held the Shikon no tama.

"Thank you," was her last whisper before her soul was sucked back into Kagome's body and Kikyou's makeshift body collapsed into a pile of old bones and mud.

InuYasha gazed at the scene in amazement and was only able to move when he saw Kagome stir. "Kagome…Kagome! Are you all right?" InuYasha asked.

Slowly opening her eyes, Kagome saw InuYasha's amber orbs. "Where's Kikyou?"

"She…" As he could not quite describe what had occurred, InuYasha pointed at the remains of Kikyou's body.

"Did she get to see you?" Kagome asked slowly.

"Yes. Why?"

"She must've been happy then," Kagome replied mysteriously. Then gazing down at her hand, she pulled at InuYasha. "Look…the jewel. It's complete again. The shard combined with it, InuYasha!" InuYasha gazed at the pile of dirt that was slowly being blown away. "It was Kikyou, wasn't it?"

"Yes," he finally replied, helping her onto her feet. "What should we do with it?"

"Make a wish, of course," Kagome replied.

"For what?"

"That all those whose lives have been affected by the jewel and its power may rest in peace and that those living will be able to live as they should've before crossing path with it and resume their right dues in life," she whispered softly. The jewel glowed awhile in their joined hands and soon settled back to a pure white color, the purple hue having left as it purified. Watching the jewel fade, InuYasha said softly while hugging Kagome, "Midoriko, Kikyou, and the others can rest in peace and our story will not be a tragedy…not this time."

PLEASE REVIEW! PRETTY PLEASEEEE!

So what do you guys think? I devoted a lot more time to this than I used to for fanfiction...anyway

**IMPORTANT NOTICE! PLEASE READ Regarding my other works**

**Regarding my other fanfictions, I really am aiming to update it but I want to devote more time and effort to them than I did last time. I realized that I needed to improve some of my ideas and writing as well, so please be patient. I am happy that I have so many faithful readers and I really hope I may update as soon as next week, but, again, I want to produce something of more quality for my fanfics than I did before. So, look forward to the updates!**

**Promise this time,**

**Enchanted Kagome**


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